Talk:Utatane Piko/@comment-26116982-20150817024402/@comment-53539-20150915081700
@Evil, I've never seen any evidence of that, since popularity =/= sales figures, as highlighted by SeeU (popular but not enough sales) and AVANNA (but receiving the best sales of any Z-G engloid, despite Sonika having more fan-content). There are likely as well other factors at play... Sony entertainment have a poor rep as a record label and are known to squeeze what they can out of a singer with not giving them back anywhere nearly as much as they deserve. Typical of a big co-operate business... But they have made many successful singers and records so it kinda works for the singer and Sony. Its just not the best situation for the singer or even group involved. So Sony would have had high expectations that if sales didn't match, proved the issue at hand with Piko. They likely had a steep success margain (15,000+ units or something). Plus Piko wasn't the best quality he could have been, and was one of the last products. Being on of the last on a engine is much worst position to be in then one of the first... As everyone already has everything they want for the engine normally and are just waiting the next version. I think the real highlight though, is the lack of merchandise BEYOND the vocaloid itself... True this came mostly in the V3 era then V2 (CFM vocals noted as I say thaT AS THE RARE EXCEPTIONS). In addition, don't forget we now have a higher quality to the vocaloids then V2 and for the most part, maybe a re-recording would have to come. Then we have the whole "males don't sell" thing that would have impacted Piko in the first insistence. It seems that its only now, in the V4 era, that the studios are daring to record males and even then if Arsloid is to go by... Its still typical for a male to be sold with a "gimmick" to it, something not every female needs to worry about to be at least semi-successful. :-/ Plus, like Tonio, Piko was mistimed with the Kagamine Rin & Len Append... Sometimes I like the fact we may have vocals that never get updated, as it does give reason for elder products to exist or create particular styles that only work on older vocals. I said this is why the retirement of LEON, LOLA and MIRIAM was a travesty. But Vocaloid is still a commercial product... The other issue also is highlighted by SF-A2 miki, Kaai Yuki V4, Hiyama Kiyoteru and Nekomura Iroha V2.... As of Windows 10, V2 is now in the "unsupported" position, which V1 was in not many years ago. We can expect at any point these products to go "by-by" and its not a good position for Piko to be in. It is, however, a legit reason for Piko to be updated and this may lead to Sony updating him... But for the moment... He can be transferred to V4, so its not as dire as the situation with the V1s.